SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - A local DJ is trying to give high school seniors a small sense of normalcy during the coronavirus pandemic.
DJ J. Soul will host a virtual prom Saturday night, using Zoom to let kids join the dance.
"There are two things you look forward to the most in your four years of high school, and that's prom and graduation," says J. Soul, who has worked as a DJ in the are for 13 years.
High School seniors say they're struggling to cope with the loss of significant life events during their final semester. Things like prom, graduation, yearbooks, and more were canceled when the coronavirus forced schools to move to online learning.
"It kind of ruined all the opportunities that I might be able to have," says Julian Yepez, a Senior at Olympian High School. "It kind of changes the mood of how I looked at high school now."
"You always want your prom to be fun, especially if you're planning it," says Tyler Gordon, a Senior at La Costa Canyon High, who is also the school's ASB Treasurer. "We always try to do that, but now this year, we can't."
Tyler and Julian both say a virtual prom won't replace what they lost, but it does give them something to look forward to. They both plan to check out the Zoom prom.
The Zoom prom will allow up to 300 people at a time. For safety, the room will be password protected. There will also be someone monitoring the feed to make sure nothing inappropriate shows up on the screen or in the chat room, and all of the visitors' microphones will be muted.
J. Soul says he's been in touch with administrators at every school he's worked with in the past 13 years.
"If the kids want to, they want to dress up and act like it's a real prom, that's cool," says J. Soul. Or they can just hang out in their living room in PJs. Whatever they want it to be, I just want them to have that experience."
J. Soul says if this first one goes well, he may do more over the rest of prom season. He also says he's checking with schools to see if they want to do a virtual prom just for their students.
